


time after time, my heart still beats for you

by snapchattingnct



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst with a Happy Ending, Anxiety, Falling In Love, Fate & Destiny, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Inspired by Hades and Persephone (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), M/M, References to Depression, Slow Burn, Souls, Spirits, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-13 13:28:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28779036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snapchattingnct/pseuds/snapchattingnct
Summary: Donghyuck lived his whole life in black and white until the day he died.Death stared back at him with brown eyes far too warm to be true, smiling shyly, “I’m sorry that I made you wait for so long, my love.”
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 28
Kudos: 118





	time after time, my heart still beats for you

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Minhyungmk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Minhyungmk/gifts).



> For Mira, happy birthday my dear, this one is for you! 
> 
> I really tried my hardest to finish the first chapter before your birthday would end in your timezone, but I'm always a little late at things like that lol, but I hope that what I managed to write was what you've been looking for since Kairos. And speaking of Kairos, thank you for loving that monster of a story of mine. I was so, so happy the day that you decided to slide into my DMs and tell me about your immense love for it. And above all, thank you so much for constantly giving me so much support and love in all of my fics, and just everything over all too. You honestly have no idea how much it means to me to know that I have someone that believes in me even when I don't believe in myself. 
> 
> Because of that, I want to give you this fic. While it's not finished yet, and it's going to be a longgggg way before it is (hopefully you don't mind because I feel like this fic will grow into a monster fic too lol), I hope that you'll enjoy it. Taking all of the things that you like, I tried my hardest to put them all into it. This idea has been floating in my mind for a while now and the draft for this was just rotting away in gdocs, so I thought that it was about time I bring it to life. Not to mention, I've missed the greek au realm~ I honestly intended for this first chapter to be much longer than this, but I'm actually quite satisfied (I think?) of where I cut it off at. I promise the chapters will be longer next time!
> 
> Anyways, I wish that your birthday can round up on a happy note with this fic~
> 
> Unbeated, and only sorta edited. I'm sorry, I'm sleepy as hell, but I still wanted to put this fic out before I take my long ass nap lol
> 
> (Betaed version updated! 01/16/21).
> 
> I tried to tag this fic as appropriately as I could, if there are tags that you feel like I should include, please let me know~
> 
> Enjoy!

Donghyuck truly began to live when he died.

It was rather ironic, quite peculiar too, but it was simply what happened. Fate had written his story that way and there was nothing he could have done to change it, even if he wanted to — desperately so. He was simply another soul, weaving his way through life, following his destined end.

Fate also decided that Donghyuck would live his entire life without ever meeting his soulmate, forced to live in a world devoid of colors, where his days were coated in monochrome. Donghyuck thought that it was simply because it wasn't time for him to meet his soulmate yet, at least that was what he tried to tell himself, in order to soothe away the ache in his heart. 

Most people had a soulmate, someone who was their perfect half — a cosmic connection so inevitable, where a single look into their eyes explained why no one else before them had worked out, because they were meant for each from the start of time. Soulmates defied all the odds because nothing could tie it down. There weren’t any calendars to keep track of the days, nor a clock to tell the time. Soulmates existed only to know that  _ moment _ where they had met a soul that was  _ so  _ right for them. 

Soulmates were something that fate predestined, the connection between two souls so certain that it could not be a coincidence. Of course, searching for a soulmate was never easy. Sometimes, souls would spend their whole lifetime searching for one another. The string that bound their souls together may be stretched, tangled, and even knotted, but never broken. The string of fate would always bring two destined souls together as nothing could ever completely keep them apart. Soulmates were ones who were connected in mind, in heart, and most of all, in soul. 

Not having a soulmate wasn't unheard of, but it was rare. Donghyuck would know, because he spent plenty of endless nights staying up until the crack of dawn, searching the internet for answers, for anyone that was like him. 

It was hard to come to terms with it at first. Despite the signs being there, Donghyuck refused to accept defeat. He had been hopeful once, at the beginning. He held onto that glimmer of hope for as long as he could, wishing,  _ praying,  _ that his soulmate would enter into his life soon. That hope faded though, after years and years of waiting. For someone who was living on a planet that was home to so many souls, to so many  _ matched  _ souls, he felt lonely. 

_ God,  _ was it lonely. 

Moving away for college probably wasn’t the best decision he had made in his life — not like any of the decisions that he seemed to make was any good either. When Jeno and Jaemin announced that they were going to move away for college, he simply followed along in an instant with the thought that if he moved away from their small, sleepy town by the seaside, he would have a greater chance of finding his soulmate. 

He shouldn’t have been too ambitious. 

He regretted every complaint he had said about his hometown. There wasn’t anything amazingly dazzling about Jeju, aside from their wonderful beaches. It was fairly quiet, most of the people on the island kept to themselves for the most part. Hardly any drama, although gossip did break through from time to time. Jeju wasn’t as special as any of the other big cities would have been, but it was home, and that was the biggest difference when he compared it to Seoul. 

Donghyuck may live in Seoul, he had done so for the past three years, but it wasn’t home. Seoul couldn’t and wouldn’t ever become a home for him. Seoul wasn’t warm, it was much colder, especially its winters, which he absolutely hated. The sun never stayed out long and it was something to be missed greatly with the move. The weather wasn’t the only thing that was cold though, the people were too. 

Seoul didn’t become anything he could care for or want to care for. He was just another soul amongst thousands, millions even. 

As everyone else in his life moved on, enjoying the full colors of the world with their soulmates, Donghyuck slowly accepted the fact that he probably didn't have a soulmate. 

Even though he accepted his fate, it didn’t quite stop him from searching for answers to  _ why. _

Donghyuck read lines after lines of text until it began to blur together and he didn’t have a single clue on what he was reading anymore. The familiar burn behind his eyes started up again, only this time it came back tenfold. His cheeks felt wet, his throat tight. 

Sucking in a deep breath, he shoved his phone back underneath his pillow, not wanting to see it any longer. He didn’t know why he would still read those articles, wasting his time like that. They were nothing but full of lies and false hope. But he figured that after scouring over them so obsessively over the past decade, they were kind of a hard habit to break. 

Donghyuck struggled to breathe through all of his tears and he fought down the temptation to pull his phone back out to continue reading those wretched articles. Instead, he twisted his fingers into his blankets, using it to keep him grounded. It wasn’t much use though because the demons that were his own thoughts continued to wreak havoc in his mind, running around in circles, driving him crazy. 

Sometimes, it drove him so crazy that he started to imagine things, like the calming hand that was tracing random figures on his cheeks right then. The touch was soft, awfully tender. It was warm, a warmth that he had been craving for all these years. 

He chased after that warmth when he suddenly felt it slip away. Unlike the times in the past, the warmth didn’t disappear completely, instead, those fingers moved to tangle themselves into his hair, combing through his locks with utmost care. It felt so real, the sensation of nails touching his scalp briefly from time to time. Donghyuck didn’t dare to open his eyes, because he knew if he did, the illusion would break. Wanting to hold onto it for a little longer, he squeezed his eyes shut and leaned into the imaginative warmth.

Recently, these warm touches came to him more often than not. Maybe it was because his mind had completely spiraled out of control. At times, the warmth was nothing more than a fleeting touch; a hand brushing across his lower back as he walked to class, a gentle caress when his hair would fall into his face, or a soft kiss on his cheek right before his exams. It scared the shit out of him in the beginning. 

Over time though, he began to look forward to them, bashfully so. 

.

There were days where he would wake up and feel okay. Days where it didn’t feel like it was a  _ task  _ to get out of bed. Then there were days that he felt great, like he could handle anything that the universe would toss at him. Those kinds of days were rare, occurring only once or twice a year. 

Donghyuck could feel the dull sunlight hitting his eyelids, urging him to wake. The sun’s rays weren’t as intense as they would have been if he was still in Jeju, they had been soft and comforting then, but the light that managed to slip through the grey overcast that Seoul always happened to hold pricked at him. Feeling the irritation bubble up within him, Donghyuck already knew that it wasn’t going to be an okay day, and definitely not a great one either. 

Tugging his blankets over his head, Donghyuck buried his face deeper into his pillows to hide away. As he squeezed his eyes shut to block out the light, he winced at the way an ache began to build up in the back of his head, one that slowly churned into a steady pounding. He should have known that it was going to happen, it always did when he cried too much and too hard to knock himself out from exhaustion. 

His attempts at trying to fall back asleep were ruined when his phone began to buzz underneath his pillow, doing nothing but adding to the headache he was having. He tried to ignore it at first, hoping that if he didn’t answer it fast enough then the person that was trying to reach him would stop. He should have known better, because not long after the buzzing stopped, signaling a dropped call, the buzz came back tenfold, his phone vibrating with every text that came through, and it was  _ a lot.  _

In a matter of a minute, his phone blew up with texts, a new one right after one another, barely any seconds to lapse in between each one. 

Jaemin was notorious for never being able to send just one text, even a simple  _ ‘good morning’  _ text managed to turn itself into a series of them. The greetings would always be broken up into two messages, Jaemin far too excited and a little impatient to completely finish the whole thing before sending it off. And of course, that wasn’t counting all the misspells and autocorrects that always happened. 

Peeking one eye open, Donghyuck internally groaned at the number of messages that greeted him. He really did not have the strength in him to take on Jaemin today. 

_ ‘DONGHYUCKKKKKKK, YOURE LATEEEEEEE!!!’  _ Per Jaemin’s style, the text was broken up and decorated with an extensive amount of emojis. The sight of it was a major eyesore. 

As he scrolled back a little further to read all the messages that Jaemin had sent, he couldn’t help but let out another groan. _Right,_ it was Wednesday, which meant that it was their daily meetup for lunch. Truthfully, it wasn’t even really much of a hangout between friends. If anything, Donghyuck felt like he was a third wheeler intruding on Jaemin and Jeno’s lunch date. He appreciated the effort that Jaemin was putting in to make him feel a little more included after they discovered that Jaemin and Jeno were soulmates when they were young, but it was too much to handle. 

Fingers dancing across the keyboard of his phone, Donghyuck prayed that Jaemin would have a heart and let him off the hook this time.  _ ‘Raincheck? I’m not really feeling up for lunch today…’ _

The text was barely marked as delivered before the three tiny dots at the bottom of his screen popped up,  _ ‘Nope. It’s tradition.’  _ Unlike the previous messages, this one was devoid of the emojis and not a single word misspelled.  __

He should have known that Jaemin wasn’t going to budge. Jaemin hadn’t budged in the last decade, so there wasn’t any way he was going to start now. 

.

Despite not being able to distinguish between the different colors of all of the flowers around him, Donghyuck loved the floral shop around the corner near his apartment complex. It was a pity that he couldn’t admire them to the fullest, but they were still beautiful regardless. 

Brushing the tips of his fingers over the tops of the lavender when he entered, Donghyuck breathed in their lovely scent. The shadow of the heavy cloud that had been hovering over his head all day long slowly began to disappear, making it a little easier to breathe. 

The further he walked into the room, a sea of flowers, varying in all sizes and beauty, Donghyuck breathed it all in again with a slow inhale. Reaching out to touch the barrel of sunflowers before him, the soft petals eased his heart, and offered him a gentle touch of affection in return. As if the sunflowers had transferred all the sunlight that they have been bathing in the whole morning to him, Donghyuck felt a rush of warmth surge through his veins, spreading all throughout his entire body. 

He cradled the batch of sunflowers to his chest, hugging them with utmost care, whispering his gratitude into their petals and greedily taking in their sweet scent once more. It was a pity he couldn’t admire more of their beauty, to see them in true color, but Donghyuck would take what he could get. 

Each time he visited the floral shop, he would ask Jaemin to describe the colors to him, not like he knew what color was what or what they even looked like, but he still wanted to know. Jaemin told him that the sunflowers were yellow, bright like the sun in the sky, fitting for their namesake Donghyuck had thought when he first heard it. They were lighter in color than the supposed red roses that sat at the counter on the other side of the room. With the roses, Jaemin said they were a vibrant red like the blood that ran through his veins. 

He overheard Jaemin and Jeno debating back and forth between which color tulips did they want for the balcony of their shared apartment. Listening to them talk like that, Donghyuck felt the ugly rear head of bitterness surround his heart. Even if he hadn’t been able to find his own soulmate yet— if they even existed in the first place— he wasn’t going to make the people around him feel guilty for being able to find their own happiness. 

The love, the pure  _ connection  _ that was shared between Jaemin and Jeno was beautiful, more beautiful than all of the flowers in the shop combined, there wasn’t a single doubt about it. They were like the missing piece to each other’s souls, matching to be the perfect fit. There was no need to force their souls together, no push was needed because their souls simply melted together. His friends were lucky to have found each other so early in life, they knew each other since they were born, and their world had been colorful since the very start of it all. Very romantic. 

Shoving the creeping nasty feeling down as best as he could, he gave the sunflowers one last glance before he moved over to the couple, but he was stopped halfway when the owner of the shop called out for him from the counter.

Footsteps faltering, Donghyuck turned towards the man who simply beamed at him. “You’re Donghyuck aren’t you? I can pick up that curly mop of hair anywhere!” Beckoning him to come closer, the owner turned around to fix something up, the sound of tissue paper rustling in the air. The moment that he reached the counter, the owner all but thrust a small bouquet into his arms. Startled by the sudden bouquet that was practically thrown at him, Donghyuck scrambled to hold it close to his chest. 

He admired the lovely flower arrangement in his hands. A few stems of sunflowers were laid in a bed of soft sedum. Unlike the bright sunflowers he had hugged earlier, the sunflowers in his hands were dark, ones that he rarely saw, but he remembered seeing them once before. Caressing the flowers, he smiled as he came to realize that they were chocolate sunflowers, flowers of the upcoming autumn season. While they weren’t the brightly colored ones that he had always preferred, they still soothed his soul all the same. A combination of chocolate sunflowers and equally dark sedum meant adoration and a cure for wounded hearts. 

Donghyuck smiled softly at them, because the combination was so  _ perfect  _ for him. “They’re  _ beautiful. _ ” Looking up from them, he faced the owner, who was smiling widely, as if he had just won the lottery. “But I didn’t order this.” 

When he made a move to hand the bouquet back, the owner shook his head fiercely, even stepping out of range to prevent Donghyuck from returning the flowers. “Not a chance young man, those are for you. You know the rules, once it’s been made and handled into your hands, no returns.” 

“But I really didn’t order them…,” Donghyuck pressed. 

“Just because you didn’t doesn’t mean that no one else did.” The owner quipped back at him and then he spun around and began to put together another customer’s bouquet, leaving no room for any more debate. 

His head spun and his heart jumped in his chest at the notion that anyone could have possibly ordered a bouquet for him. He wasn’t anything special to deserve that kind of treatment. As Jaemin’s voice grew a little louder as he came close to the counter to check out, Donghyuck drew up an answer. Jaemin was the only other person in his life that would have known the meanings behind all the flowers in the shop and would personally buy him a bouquet too. For the number of times that they’ve visited the shop together, Jaemin never did that before though, making Donghyuck wonder what about today urged him to do so. 

Before he could ask the question, Jaemin bounded over to him and cooed at the flowers in his hands, “These are gorgeous! Who bought them for you?” Giggling, he added, “I know for a fact that it wasn’t yourself.” 

_ “What?” _ Donghyuck sputtered, eyes growing wide. “I thought that you bought them for me!” 

Jaemin laughed, his loud voice bouncing off the tiled floors. “Definitely not me. I haven’t been to the shop since last month when we visited it then.” 

He was stunned and the longer that he stared down at the flowers, the more confused he felt, because who could have possibly known him, in a rather intimate manner it seemed like, to gift him such an arrangement. As he stood there though, a familiar warmth bloomed across his cheek and then moved to caress down his right ear, almost as if someone was trying to tuck a strand of his bangs behind his ear. 

Donghyuck ignored the way his heart skipped a beat before it fluttered like the wings of a hummingbird. 

.

It was always hilarious to Donghyuck that no matter where they were, the sidewalks were never big enough to hold the three of them to walk alongside one another. Fate seemed to even mock him even on small matters like that. 

No matter how much Jaemin had started out clingy to his side like a second skin, his best friend would naturally float back to where Jeno was, as if his body, his soul, couldn’t withstand the mere distance between them. Over time, Donghyuck settled into his spot by walking behind them as Jaemin and Jeno led the way. 

Usually, the bitterness would show its ugly head, but for the moment, Donghyuck felt freer than he had ever been. 

Thumbing at the petals of the sunflowers in his arms, Donghyuck smiled warmly at them again. Maybe, it was worth it getting out of bed today. Still, there were grey clouds hanging over their heads, the sun hiding behind them as the humidity clung to his skin uncomfortably. The thick air promised rain, one last final summer storm before it became fully morphed into autumn. 

And Donghyuck knew that it was true when he felt the first drop of rain land onto his open palm. It wasn’t outright pouring yet, but he knew that it would soon. 

Even with the light misting, Jaemin and Jeno were still all wrapped up in each other’s arms, laughing and smiling widely. They were all too caught up with each other to be remotely disturbed by the weather. Sometimes they were laughing so hard that Jaemin would slip off the sidewalk and onto the edge of the road, but Jeno was swift to tug his lover back in though, hands gripping onto Jaemin’s bicep tightly.

As the rain turned from a spring mist to an actual sprinkle, the water droplets became bigger and fuller with each step that they took, forming rain puddles beneath their feet, it made it just a little harder to maintain their steps. 

When Jeno whispered another silly joke into Jaemin’s ears, Donghyuck watched as Jaemin doubled over, laughing his entire heart and soul out. The sound was contagious and Donghyuck couldn’t help but let his lips curl up to match the smiles that his friends had plastered on their faces. 

His smile all but dropped in the next few seconds though as he saw the way Jaemin stumbled over his own two feet from laughing so hard, slipping on the wet pavement and into the streets. Jeno was still caught up in his own fit of laughter to immediately pull Jaemin back onto the sidewalk like he usually did, making Donghyuck’s heart rate speed up. 

Listening to the sounds of the cars passing by, his heart began to beat so violently, it was like his heart was tattooed to the inside of his ribcage. The longer Jaemin stood on the edge of the streets like that with the constant  _ ‘whooshing’  _ of the cars driving by, the harder it got for Donghyuck to breathe. Unable to calm his heart, Donghyuck took a couple of large steps forward and reached out for Jaemin, wanting to get his best friend out of the open road as fast as possible. 

He wrapped his fingers around Jaemin’s wrist tightly, making Jaemin gasp at the sudden touch, and pulled him back up to the sidewalks, never minding his own footing. 

.

One of the things that came with being so overly obsessed with the concept of soulmates was that it wasn’t uncommon for Donghyuck to feel disconnected from his sense of reality. 

With the amount of thinking he did on a regular basis, his thoughts, both good and bad, running endless circles around in his head, Donghyuck sometimes forgot where he was. It was on par with him dozing off in the middle of his super boring seventeenth-century history course, where one second he remembered writing down some chicken scratch of notes and then the next, they’re two chapters ahead and the lecture was almost done. 

He was there but he really wasn’t there. His body moved on autopilot, doing the things that it needed to do, while his mind was elsewhere, waiting for it to regroup back to reality. 

Donghyuck never felt as distorted as he was though when finally came back around. Everything felt numb, but at the same time, it was probably the most liberating he had ever felt. For the first time, it didn’t take any of his strength to breathe,  _ to live. _ The weight that was bearing down on his chest and shoulders for so many years was gone. The bright rays of the sun graced his body, spreading a calming warmth to the very tips of his toes. 

He was enjoying the way the sun was kissing his skin all too much to want to open his eyes, but he heard someone calling out to him, one that was a little higher in pitch than normal. 

_ “Donghyuck!”  _

The light grew brighter and danced over his eyelids, urging him to wake. Although he was annoyed with the unnecessary probing, Donghyuck sighed and urged his eyes to open. 

He found himself staring back up at the grey skies, watching the rain pouring down on his body. A storm was raging but Donghyuck didn’t feel wet like he would have expected him to be. With how hard it was raining, he was sure that he would have been soaked to the bone, yet he wasn’t.

_ “Donghyuck!”  _ Jaemin screamed out for him again and Donghyuck shivered at the sound of his voice. 

He wondered if he had wandered off track while he was too caught up in his head. It wasn’t too uncommon that he would walk and walk until he didn’t know where he was any longer. Jaemin lectured him each and every single time about it, and Donghyuck had an inkling that he was going to be in for an  _ earful.  _

Turning on his heels, he searched for his friends in between the pouring rain. He didn’t have to look far because they were right in front of him. Donghyuck parted his lips to call out for them, but he found that their names were stuck in the back of his throat. 

He sucked in a deep breath at what he saw. Digging the heel of his palm into his eyes, he couldn’t believe what he saw— he couldn’t wrap his mind around it. 

The beautiful cream sweater that Jaemin had been wearing earlier that day was coated in red, a vibrant contrast to what it had once been. Jaemin’s hair was wet, dripping with rain water, and matted down, sticking to his forehead. The tears that streamed down his cheeks were almost indistinguishable against the rain pouring down around them. 

Donghyuck didn’t understand why Jaemin was like that, the last thing he remembered was Jaemin’s lovely, smiling face. He wondered what could have possibly happened between the time that he got lost in his head to then that made Jaemin pull a complete one-eighty. 

Following the lines of red that coated both his sweater and then his hands, Donghyuck finally understood. 

Jaemin clutched onto his body, holding it tightly to his chest as he screamed his name over and over again. There was immense pain in his screams, full of sorrow and grief. It was a sound that Donghyuck didn’t even know that his best friend was capable of. But at the moment, it was the only sound that Jaemin could make. To the side, Jeno was screaming too, talking rapidly into his cell phone, an equally red hand pressed to his forehead. 

“Oh,” he breathed, catching the way Jaemin wiped away and pushed back the bloodied locks away from his all too pale face.  _ “Oh.”  _

He died. 

Death wasn’t a foreign concept to him, nor was it unwanted thought. Unlike most people, Donghyuck wasn’t afraid of dying. He didn’t hold much in life to be worried about leaving his life too early or fear it. If he was being honest, he thought about death before, probably more often than he should have. 

It was hard living in a life that was devoid of colors while everyone else around him was enjoying it. It made him feel like he didn’t even have a purpose in life. Soulmates were the very reason that everyone lived for, to find a love so great and to share it with someone that was your perfect half. If he couldn’t find or have a soulmate, what was the point in life? 

He shouldn’t have thought of death like that but he couldn’t stop his mind from spiraling down that path when it got too hard to bear on some days. It was a cowardly way to handle it, but wouldn’t the pain that he felt within his heart, one that wreaked havoc on his entire body, go away? 

Donghyuck thought about it a lot. 

A soft whimper and nip at the edge of his pants caught his attention. Feeling the tug become a little more impatient, he glanced down at the source of it and a pair of soft eyes looked back up at him. Those adorable eyes belonged to that of an equally adorable puppy. 

Dropping to his knees, Donghyuck cooed over the dark-colored poodle. It was a tiny little thing, barely over a couple of months old. Scooping the puppy up into his arms, Donghyuck ran a gentle hand through its silky fur. “What are you doing here, little guy?” 

The puppy answered him with a tiny  _ ‘woof,’  _ bumping his wet nose into his cheek as it did so. 

Rubbing the spot right behind its ears, Donghyuck wondered why this cute puppy was here. Did it die too? It would make sense that it did or else he wouldn’t be able to hold it like that. 

“Are you here to join me on this journey too?” Donghyuck asked the puppy, still petting it and giving it all the attention it desired. “Although, I don’t really know what I’m doing.” 

Another tiny  _ ‘woof’  _ answered back at him. It was also at that moment that he realized that the shining light that awoken him earlier wasn’t the sun at all, for the raging storms blocked it out in the first place, but rather it was coming from an opening behind him, like a tunnel of some sorts. Donghyuck had always wondered what it would be like after he died, and it looked like he was going to find out soon enough. The beacon of light was becoming more vibrant as each second passed by, urging him to step closer to it, to let it engulf him entirely. 

The sound of sirens penetrating the air reached his ears and the puppy in his arms barked at it, making him turn back around to the scene that was unfolding in front of him. 

The paramedics finally arrived and he watched with a bated breath as they moved around him, forcing Jeno to pull Jaemin back from his lifeless body for them to do their job, although he was sure that there wasn’t much that they could have done at that rate. 

Jaemin all but folded himself into Jeno’s arms, pounding a closed fist against Jeno’s chest. Donghyuck’s heart clenched as the sound Jaemin’s wailing echoed out and as Jeno tried his best to hold them both upright. 

There was a bit of bitterness crawling underneath his skin but it was barely noticeable. He was sad that this was the way that they would part, because there was so much more that he wanted to do for his friends, the only people in his life that made living worthwhile. Donghyuck didn’t regret saving Jaemin though, he would  _ never  _ regret it, not in that lifetime nor the next. Jaemin was absolutely worth it and he couldn’t have possibly allowed Jeno to live the rest of his life without a soulmate like that. Losing a soulmate was even more painful than not finding one in the first place. 

It was probably going to be hard for both Jaemin and Jeno, but he knew that if they had each other that they would be okay, they were soulmates after all. It was going to hurt like hell, and Jaemin would beat himself up for what happened for a long time, but Donghyuck had faith in Jeno to be there for him every step of the way. It was Donghyuck’s decision for what he had done, and he hoped that Jaemin knew that too. It wasn’t in any way Jaemin’s fault. If anything it would have been the driver that had been reckless and driving so close to the sidewalks, practically onto them in the first place. 

Seeing the way that Jeno held onto Jaemin like a lifeline and Jaemin doing the same in return, he smiled at the couple standing in the rain. 

_ ‘They’ll be alright,’  _ Donghyuck thought. 

Another  _ ‘woof’  _ resonated in the air and a wet tongue licked at his face. Smiling, Donghyuck held the puppy up to his face, rubbing his cheek up against the top of its head, saying, “You think so too, don’t you?” At its wagging tail and excited yips, Donghyuck laughed. 

Sparing a final glance back at his friends and then looking over to where the paramedics had his body covered up, Donghyuck hummed. “Let’s go.” 

.

As he expected, the light that surrounded him, slipping in between his fingers and caressing his body was warm, it reminded him of the sun in Jeju— it reminded him a lot of home. Bathing in that warmth, he felt the air ripple across his clothes and through his hair, the taste of sea salt on the very tip of his tongue. But the nostalgic moment passed before he could enjoy it any further. 

The air around him twisted once more, becoming a little chilly, but the sudden cool breeze wasn’t unwelcomed, it felt rather nice gliding over his skin. As the light faded, Donghyuck soon found himself standing calves deep in a river, the waters calm and barely moving. It probably should have bothered him that his pants were now wet and clinging to his legs, but Donghyuck was surprised to find that he wasn’t. He was at ease and the calmness he felt hadn’t faltered, not even a little. 

The puppy within his arms gave another loud and happy yip, before it squirmed and managed to wiggle itself out of his grasp. He watched with wide eyes, the serene feeling he felt disappeared as the puppy dropped down into the river. Donghyuck scrambled right after it knowing that there was no way the little thing could have been able to swim in the shallow waters. To his surprise though, the puppy resurfaced in an instant and began paddling towards the shore. 

Breathing out a sigh of relief, Donghyuck watched as its little body made it all the way across the river in a matter of seconds before it powered through the shore and to the top. Once it sat down in a field of poppies, nearly crushing the poor flowers, it asked for Donghyuck to follow with a sharp bark that echoed out loudly around them.

When Donghyuck showed no signs of moving, its barking grew in volume. 

Laughing, Donghyuck nodded and pushed through the waters, “Yes, yes. I’m coming, just give me a moment. You’re a speedy little thing, aren’t you?” 

It answered his question with more barks and yips, being far too excited than it should have been. So excited that sitting still and patiently waiting for him to catch up wasn’t an option anymore as it began to bounce around on its little legs. Sometimes it would disappear into the fields of flowers and then return back, only to dive back into the field again. 

_ “Cerberus,”  _ a soft voice echoed out from deep within the fields, one that made Donghyuck’s heart skip a beat, “sit down.”

Cerberus gave out a little whine, but as the voice had asked of it, it sat back down near the shore, only because he noticed that Donghyuck was much closer than before. During the time that Cerberus was having the time of his life in between the grass and the flowers, Donghyuck managed to wade through the waters and to the shore. 

A hand suddenly appeared in front of him, pale fingers extending out towards him, almost hesitantly. “The edge is a little slippery. Here, I’ll help you.” 

Heart racing again, Donghyuck eyed the hand stretched out for him to hold out for a second longer before he looked up to see who the voice belonged to. As he drew his eyes up, Donghyuck felt his cheeks heat up as he looked right into a pair of brown eyes, full of warmth and sweetness like a cup of hot chocolate. 

Donghyuck had never seen such dazzling eyes before. It looked like there was an entire galaxy within them, tiny little stars glistening even brighter when they smiled. And  _ wow,  _ Death had such a lovely smile. The sight of it nearly robbed him all of the air in his lungs, although he wasn’t sure if he still needed that air or not, granted that he was dead now. The smile led up a set of cheekbones that had to be carved out of marble because there was no way those cheekbones were real. 

Death was  _ beautiful. _

There was no way Death looked like that, Donghyuck thought to himself, but a small voice in the back of his mind told him that it had to be. It would only be appropriate that Death would appear before him after he died, to lead him through his afterlife or to move onto a next life. 

Letting his eyes roam unabashedly all over Death’s form, from top to bottom, he sucked in a breath at the elegant, dark blue robes that hung from his frame, draping over his incredibly broad shoulders. Just like his eyes, Donghyuck swore that he saw tiny specks of stardust in the linings of the robes. Blue was such a stunning color on Death and its combination with Death’s brown eyes, it made Donghyuck feel faint. It was too perfect and his heart agreed because it fluttered a ridiculous amount. 

Embarrassed, Donghyuck averted his eyes back down to the blue robes. He felt like if he stared into those brown eyes any longer, he might just combust right on the spot. 

Blue. 

_ Brown.  _

Donghyuck gasped, breath catching in his throat. 

Death stared back at him with brown eyes far too warm to be true, smiling shyly, “I’m sorry that I made you wait for so long, my love _. _ ”

**Author's Note:**

> Stay healthy, happy, and safe everyone! <3
> 
> [twt](https://twitter.com/markeuhyuckie/status/1239041276454076417?s=20) | [cc](https://curiouscat.me/markeuhyuckie)


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